Downvote goading, things like 'the entire world playing the race card on you' are basically trolling, they don't sound like asking a question in good faith. This particular case is also not about someone being fired for 'not performing' - nobody has claimed that. So if trolling is not your intent, you should edit it down to whatever it is you are actually asking.

That's why I removed it. I am asking the questions in good faith. I want to know how the society will avoid having chilling effect of not being able to fire underperformers and making difficult choices when they need to be made.

If we cannot sit down and have a peaceful conversation, calling trolls and other non-sense, please don't divulge in this thread.

No, I'm sorry, the high horse you're trying to ride here just isn't going to hold the weight of the ideological argument you tried to make. Timnit Gebru was severed from Google because of a conflict between her and the research practices at Google. Moreover, the story begins with her offering an ultimatum and Google preemptively accepting her resignation. No part of this story reasonably involves the "gender differences" and "difficult truths" you're invoking.

Dropping boilerplate ideological provocations onto unrelated threads isn't good-faith conversation. Whether you mean it to be or not, it has the effect of trolling, and on HN, trolling is a strict-liability offense; your mens rea matters less than the outcome.

Please don't do things like this on HN.

Probably fairer to say she was severed because the fruits of her research are irreconcilable with the company's peaceful enjoyment of its core business model. The sudden commitment to research practices (as documented elsewhere in this thread) being a fig leaf for that less comfortable truth.

I agree, for what it's worth.

'playing the race card' and asking about firing for non-performance in the context of a story that does not involve someone being fired for that are not invitations to 'peaceful conversation'. They come off as deliberate provocation. Again, if that's not what you have in mind, just edit it out and focus on whatever it is you want to ask.

Sorry, I know this is somewhat off-topic, but I feel like it is important to engage on a human level for a minute.

I’m genuinely sorry to hear that you feel uncomfortable voicing your opinions. I know from personal experience how hard it is to feel like you have to keep yourself closed off to the world. As a species generally, and as technologists specifically, we have some way to go to create non-toxic spaces for people to share ideas.

Still, you are engaging in fortune telling[0]—you really can’t know that your comments will be downvoted before you make them. Feeling compelled to add notes to the end of your posts encouraging others to downvote is your brain tricking you into tilting the scales to “confirm” what you “knew” to be true. It may feel like a helpful strategy to blunt the emotional pain of discovering that people don’t agree with you all the time, but from what little you’ve said, it sure seems like it’s just reinforcing your negative outlook. I don’t want you to feel bad all the time, and I suspect it is not actually true that most people here are going to disagree and downvote you to oblivion all the time so long as you avoid self-sabotaging.

I know it can be incredibly hard not to take downvotes personally, and, I hope you are able to try to reframe them as what they are: some random people, some of whom are thoughtful and some of whom are not, pushing a button. It’s not a personal attack, even though our brains can make it feel very much like it is. If you truly are getting downvoted a lot, it may be a signal that some of your opinions aren’t fully thought through and need to be re-evaluated, or perhaps that you just didn’t present your ideas well. On the other hand, your brain can and will exaggerate the negative experiences, make them seem like they are happening a lot more than they are, and make you feel bad even though you’re actually doing just fine.

Anyway, while I’m sure it happens (I don’t think there’s any space that is totally immune to bandwagons), I don’t get the sense that genuine and thoughtful comments regularly get downvoted to oblivion here. It’s trickier than ever these days since there is a lot of bad-faith argumentation going on everywhere online under the guise of innocently “just asking questions”[1], and I think it’s fair to say that there is an growing immune-like reaction which is sometimes attacking genuine posters because it’s just impossible to tell who’s being honest and who’s being a shitty troll.

So just keep doing your best, anonymous internet commenter. :-) If you feel like you can’t, I hope you can find a counsellor or friend who will listen and help you into a more positive head space. At the least, your post has generated some reasonable and civil discussion, and that’s what we’re here for, right?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_to_conclusions

[1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Just_asking_questions

Thanks, I read your comment in its entirety. I think we need more people like you. Disagreements about issues and these things happen all the time. My fear was founded in the fact that people perceive me as either 1) Faking as a non-white person (see some accusations here) 2) On top of that, accusing me of being racist. The truth cannot be more further from that. 3) Downvoting because its a difficult conversation. 4) Perhaps tracking me down and finding my identitity and may be someone crazy can go nuts and cause harm to my persons or my career.

You are looking at it from the wrong angle. I hear you because I used to be like you.

Now...try this instead. Think of downvotes as someone anonymously throwing a tantrum with a keystroke because their tender tender feelings were hurt.

That, my friend.. is not your problem.

Your comment is the top comment.

That's an insane accusation. You can check my comment history perhaps that will reveal some aspects of it.

Also, I am kind of shocked you would accuse of me something like this. WTF. I am not trolling. I am asking a difficult question that needs to be discussed because no one is discussing it.

You seem to have rigid ideas of what it's possible to experience, believe and be genuine about on the basis of the color of one's skins. Maybe that should be a signal to step back and rethink.

You also illustrate beautifully the vapidness of this fad notion of "concern trolling". Because they have not conformed with your view of the issues and used your preferred language, they can only be conceived of as trolling.

The other poster seems to be making a genuine effort to express their thoughts and edited their post to be less combative. Yet you can ONLY see them as being dishonest and disingenuous.

She was fired after sending a mass email, to hundreds of colleagues, criticizing her employer in very strong terms. What company wouldn’t fire an exec who sends a “f* this place” email to the company mailing list?

Google, usually. People are highly critical of executives and (relevantly) Google's efforts on diversity and inclusion work all the time.